Franklin D. Roosevelt's paralytic illness

Franklin D. Roosevelt's paralytic illness began in 1921, when the future President of the United States was 39 years of age and vacationing with his family at their summer home on Campobello Island. Roosevelt was diagnosed with poliomyelitis two weeks after he fell ill. He was left with permanent paralysis from the waist down, and was unable to stand or walk without support. Despite the lack of a cure for paralysis he tried a wide range of therapies, and his belief in the benefits of hydrotherapy led him to found a center at Warm Springs, Georgia, in 1926. He laboriously taught himself to walk short distances while wearing iron braces on his hips and legs by swiveling his torso, supporting himself with a cane, and he was careful never to be seen using his wheelchair in public. His bout with illness was well known before and during his Presidency and became a major part of his image, but the extent of his paralysis was kept from public view. A 2003 retrospective diagnosis of FDR's illness favored Guillain–Barré syndrome rather than polio, a conclusion criticized by other researchers.